Tom Painting was born on April 1, 1951, in Rochester, New York, where he lives and works as a middle and high school English and creative writing teacher. The oldest of six children, he was taught to play and love baseball at an early age by a father who, until he got married, had played semipro baseball. “Some of my fondest memories as a kid,” the poet writes, “are of the choose-up sandlot games my friends and I would arrange after school and on weekends. We’d play for endless hours, without adult intervention, amending the rules, settling our own disputes, and creating high drama. I played the outfield, threw and batted left-handed, and often led off in the batting lineup. I followed the exploits of the ’60s Yankees: Maris, Mantle, Berra, Richardson, etc. I was a Yankee fan to the core and am to this day.” A gifted runner, Painting concentrated on track events while in high school and college, so wasn’t involved with organized ball until his twenties when he began playing for an amateur softball team. He loves the outdoors and is an avid bird-watcher who has identified 594 North American species.
About haiku, Painting writes, “I first came to haiku about twelve years ago, when a friend of mine gave me as a birthday gift, a subscription to the [haiku] journal Brussels Sprout. I was intrigued. I wrote one haiku, which was accepted and published. Easy I thought. It was at least a year before I wrote another ‘keeper,’ and by then I had come to realize the meaning of beginner’s luck. Haiku takes practice and discipline, just like baseball.”
all day rain
on the playing field
a stray dog
bases loaded
a full moon clears
the right field fence
the foul ball lands
in an empty seat
summer’s end